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Forum Discussion
Why doesn't online-only work normally on my account?
This has been an ongoing issue. The DB tech support rep I talked to was utterly useless and keep telling me to use selective sync instead, which not only doesn't solve my problem (I WANT the file to ...
He doesn't believe me. :P
I explained when the issue happens:
1. On computer A, I put a large file (F) in my Dropbox through Win Explorer
2. On computer B, which has "online only" setting turned on, F will still get downloaded
Sure, I can right click on a folder and make it online-only. That is not the issue I'm having.
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Is the file in a folder which is specifically marked to be available offline manually from the Dropbox folder in Explorer?
This overrides the setting in the Dropbox desktop application.
Well, its not "specifically marked" that. It just is that, because that's the default state for folders and files that get added to Dropbox from Win Explorer.
So Dropbox must think, "File F is available offline on computer A. Therefore, it should be offline on computer B as well."
That basically means that "online only" is only relevant to files added through the browser. It doesn't consider whether a file will be newly added to the current device. That is bad design, I have to say.- Rich
Super User II
So Dropbox must think, "File F is available offline on computer A. Therefore, it should be offline on computer B as well."
No. More like "File F is syncing to a folder on computer B that's available offline, therefore the file within that folder should be available offline as well."
Set the folder to be Online-only on computer B and then add a file to that same folder on computer A and see if you get the same results.
